


in the hearts of kings

by zozo



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Gen, Mercy - Freeform, Not redemption, Post-Canon, Post-Season/Series 05, restorative justice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:00:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24218530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zozo/pseuds/zozo
Summary: After the final battle, Adora has one more decision to make.
Relationships: Adora & Hordak (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 40
Kudos: 621
Collections: the corners of today





	in the hearts of kings

**Author's Note:**

> Of all the feelings I have about the end of She-Ra, _these_ are the first ones I get out of my system? Go figure.
> 
> This picks up immediately where the finale leaves off, so **major spoilers** herein, obviously.

Eventually Bow and Glimmer slip away, blushing and giggling, and Catra is reminded of the way some cadets thought they were “sneaking off” together back in the Horde. She doesn’t mind having Adora’s friends around—which is more affection than she ever imagined feeling for those two—but she also doesn’t mind having time alone with Adora.

They hold each other for a while as the magic of Etheria swirls around them, its limitless potential finally unleashed and healing the damage done by the Horde. Adora smells like sweat and ash and spent adrenaline, and Catra buries her face in it, basking in Adora’s presence, basking in the freedom to finally belong to each other.

Adora presses a warm kiss to her temple. “Hey,” she says softly. “I need to go talk to—to Entrapta. And Hordak.” Catra’s eyes narrow at Hordak’s name, and Adora nods in acknowledgment, brushing a lock of hair from Catra’s forehead and kissing the spot where it had been. “You don’t have to come,” she says, “it’ll just take a minute.”

“Right,” says Catra. “Yeah. I don’t want to go. I kind of just… never want to think about Hordak again, honestly.” The corners of Adora’s mouth lift a little at that. “But you go. Come find me after.”

The look on Adora’s face is so—so _transparent_ , so earnest and full of love that it almost blinds Catra with its intensity. “Always,” she whispers, and gives Catra another kiss on the lips. Then she smiles and walks away, already starting to glow.

* * *

Entrapta has begun rounding up the disconnected Horde clones left behind on Etheria. Very few have any will to fight; most are somewhere between shaken and traumatized by the loss of their hive mind connection, and it only takes a few gentle words from Entrapta or Wrong Hordak to get them moving towards a central location.

“I don’t know what to do about them yet,” Entrapta tells She-Ra. “I don’t even know if they can survive for long without the hive mind. Wrong Hordak got unplugged when he was still pretty much a blank slate—these ones had all their conditioning locked in. But I don’t think… I don’t think they’re dangerous anymore. Not without _him_.”

She-Ra looks out over the huddled masses of clones. They used to seem like an implacable force of nature, beyond even ideas of good and evil—the concept of destruction itself given form. Now, though, she struggles to feel anything except pity. Some of the clones are pacing, wringing their hands; others are catatonic; others still are weeping in various states of collapse. _More victims of Prime_ , she thinks, a pang of sadness in her stomach.

Out loud, she says, “Thank you, Entrapta. I really appreciate you doing this.” Entrapta beams. “One more thing, though: I need to talk to Hordak.”

Entrapta nods. “I thought you might. He’s resting over there.” She points to a small area enclosed by temporary dividers, something a little less than a tent. “You’re not…” Her voice trembles and her pigtails twist themselves awkwardly. “You’re not going to hurt him, are you?”

She-Ra shakes her head, thoughts of “Hordak” and “rest” jarring in the same context. “Not unless he tries to hurt me. I just want to talk.”

“He won’t,” Entrapta says quickly. “Try to hurt you, I mean.”

“Good,” says She-Ra.

* * *

Entrapta had showed him to this tiny, barely-private alcove and instructed him to rest, ignoring his protests. The thought of reclining on the alcove’s only furniture, a simple camping cot, was unacceptable, but his legs were feeling ever weaker, and the alternative—collapsing entirely—was worse. Finally, he had reached a compromise between his exhaustion and his dignity and sat down reluctantly on the edge of the cot, unsure what else would satisfy Entrapta’s requirement of “rest.”

Then, from around the divider, a voice. A familiar voice. She-Ra’s voice. “Hordak,” she calls, and in that voice alone he can hear that her power has become greater than ever before. Perhaps, he thinks, she is here to strike him down. Given his current state—and hers, for that matter—he can mount no defence. Horde Prime is gone. Entrapta is safe. All of his ambitions have come to naught. Perhaps it is time.

She-Ra steps into view, tall and shining, sword at her side. Hordak looks up at her. If she has brought him death, he will not turn away from it. He will, at least, keep that final dignity for himself.

But she doesn’t lift the sword to strike, she only—regards him. They stare at each other for a long moment. He cannot even imagine what she is thinking. And when she finally speaks again, what she says is so unexpected it takes him a moment to understand that it’s a question.

“What do you remember?” she asks.

He looks away from her, furrows his brow in thought. There’s no point in anything but an honest answer.

“I was in the Fright Zone, fighting Catra and the Queen of Bright Moon. Then I was on Horde Prime’s ship. Prime… rejected me, attempted to recondition me. He succeeded, for a time. Then I remembered who I was—I tried to kill him, I thought I had killed him—” He stops, then shakes his head. “The next thing I remember is… you, on the cliff.”

She-Ra’s expression doesn’t change, but she seems to be listening. When he finishes, she’s quiet for a moment, then nods slowly.

“You probably figured this out, but Horde Prime took over your body. When I got rid of him, I guess… I brought you back.”

This is more or less what Hordak had assumed. “So,” he says, sensing the direction of the conversation, “what are you going to do with me?” He looks up and sees her jaw clench, then relax. She cocks her head at him and for an instant he can see the insolent teenage Force Captain inside the ancient mystical warrior. Then that glimpse of Adora is gone, and only She-Ra remains.

“I’m not sure,” she says. “What do _you_ want, Hordak?”

He must not have heard her correctly. “What do… _I_ want?”

“Yeah. If you could choose what happens to you next. What would you choose?”

Stunned, Hordak looks away. It’s a difficult idea to form. Choice? A future…?

He’s even more shocked to hear She-Ra chuckle. “Yeah, I know,” she says, in a casual tone he’s never heard from her before. “It’s a tough one.”

“What do I want,” Hordak repeats.

“And don’t say ‘to conquer Etheria.’”

He glances up and she’s _smirking_ at him. The situation is so bizarre, he’s rapidly losing any sense of footing, and another honest answer escapes him before he can stop it. “I have… lost my appetite for conquest.”

She-Ra finally seems to be the one who’s shocked, and Hordak wonders if he can throw her even further off balance with more honesty. “What I ‘want,’” he continues, “what I would ‘choose’…” The answer, now that he has it, seems as obvious and inevitable as gravity. “I would choose to be at Entrapta’s side. Assisting her. If she still requires a… lab partner.”

He looks at She-Ra again. It appears he’s succeeded at surprising her: her eyes are wide and her lips are slightly parted; it feels like she’s looking _into_ him, not at him. Hordak realizes he has no idea what’s about to happen.

Then she crouches down so they’re eye-to-eye. Hordak’s dignity bristles at her posture, but he hides it, still waiting to see what she’ll do.

“Etheria’s magic is free now,” she says softly. “Free from the First Ones, from you, from Horde Prime. It belongs to the people, the way it always should have. If you try to be a warlord again, it will be over before it starts, do you understand? Do you believe me?”

“Yes.” And he truly does. Perhaps She-Ra was only a nuisance at first, but now, fully come into her power and backed by the unmitigated force of Etheria’s ancient natural magic—she could annihilate him with a fraction of that, and he sees in her fiery blue eyes that she wouldn’t hesitate.

She-Ra stands to her full towering height. “Okay, Hordak,” she says with finality. “Officially, you’ll be remanded into Entrapta’s custody, and what she does with you at that point is up to her.” She smirks again. “But consider yourself on an _extremely tenuous_ , permanent probation.”

Is this… mercy? Madness? Hordak’s head is spinning. He wants Entrapta to explain to him what’s happening, wants her to organize this overwhelming new situation into something manageable, the way only she can do—and then he realizes he can, he can ask her to explain, and she almost certainly will, and—

—he has a future. She-Ra has… given him a future. And now she’s turning to walk between the dividers and out of the alcove. His sense of reality completely shattered, Hordak can’t help himself: “Why?” he blurts out at her gleaming back.

She turns to look at him one last time, more emotions swirling on her face than he could ever hope to understand. But he can tell she’s thinking about someone else, not about him at all.

“There’s been enough death,” says the She-Ra, power crackling in her words. “It’s time for new life.”

And she walks away.


End file.
